Omaha daily bee., 1887-01-03
He ENJOYED THE ROMANCE,
Stories Told by Young Telegraph
Operator,
The Sort OF Dispatches Newly wod.
ded Couples Send to Their
Friends and Relatives.

| NtW L Ork lines: There is nothing i
the least remarkable about the externa
appearance of certain little np-towi
telegraph and messenger office. There
the ultra-marine coloring that all know s.
wen; there is even the placard bearint
the picture of the small messenger in th
much ridlculed position of n mall
Atalanta: and yet this small Office is ia,
from ordinarily interesting. 1t is near ,
church. 1t is within stones throw o
.ie mouse OF one OF the most agreeable
impressive, talkatlve, and genial pastor:
possible to imagine. The neighborhooc
Is respectfully sedate and pleasingly mo
notonous. Its three elements, the pastor
the church, the telegraph Office, seem in.
evltable to its well-being. Minus the
pastor, the church would lose Its princi.
pal attraction, and the telegraph Office n
good deal of work. Minus the church
ana the telegraph Office, the pastors s
efforts would necessarily be crampcd,
inside this Office is youth with LIGHT
halr, blue eyes, and an expression of
pland ignorance. He is one of the people
1elore whom nobody minds saying, any
tning. No one would ever suspect him
Oh paying attention to anything on Garth
put ms dinner, Nine people ont of ten
| would say that he was mere automaton,
| uolhg ms work, receiving his pay. and
| theh beginning again. The tenth person
| would soon see that the other nine were
wrong, that the telegraph operator was
helthGr an automaton nor fool, that he
SN, saw ali n., that went on before him with the
kconly critical understanding of the 81.
tent man; in fact that, like the old
woman's parrot, he didn't say much. but
was the deuce of u thinker"
1hls youth favored me with various
communications. In fact he talked SO
much that in the course of what he said
ne made so many interesting points that
Iney are worth repeating. 1t was he who
Calieu the three elements of that neiph
borhood the church, the pastor, and the
telegraph Office. "Therc's great deal
gong on in this telegraph Office" he said.
.that Is tinged, and very conspicuousIv
tlnged with romance. Oh, yes" con-
temptuously,. II know very well what
people thlnk of these places They
iasilie tiiat an messages are of the pro.
sate, practical nature belonging to many
OF them. They suppose that telegraph
operators, by dint OF transcribing stupid,
dull, lncomprchenslb.c messages. become |
stupid, dun, add incomprehensible feI.
lows, and that nothing ever occurs to |
waken them from their lethargy. What |
mlstake In my own quiet way often |
weave romancos OF the most thrilling |
klnd from the messages | transmit or
transcribe, l have some of the most in.
terestihg experiences. In fact, | enioy
my position. The fact that there are n
pastor and a church so close to us gives
me plenty OF work TO do. i don't Know
what there is in this neighborhood to nc.
count for 1t. but tell you the truth when
! say tnat runaway couples, clandestinc
lovers,and such like all seem to favor This
church above any other. That may be
pure supposition on my part. You can take
1t Tor what you like There never passes
a week but young man and woman
enter tins Office and in the greatest agita.
non SEND some such message as this:
,MarS ana L were married tonight by
" Dr. biank. Forgive us. More anon
lhey have invariably come from DR..
blank's house, and the young woman
squaliy invariably wears a plain gold
oand on her finger. AS rule, these
couples are very amusing. | can tell a
newly married couple as soon as see
me. They generally come M like this:
me man opens the door with some slight
e III ha and waits for the girl to enter
'he mas become so extremely coy that she
lrcads being the first one to face the
operator, who of course she !
lnaglnes knows exactly what she has
ONE Tor and is overwhelmed with curl |
slty. Ihey generally remain with the I
oor open Tor some twenty seconds. In {
inter ! that is just about long enough to
MI the room. In summer don't mind I;
:; When they have shut the door thew c
dvance to the desk, and with a trem !
ing hand he takes about six dozen j.
lankS, MS though he were going to teIe. L
raph three.yolume novel. Then he y
ties the end OF the penholder and thinks C
nat he ought to, say: Married people z
re so unreasonable. Now it never oc. W
IN h m thnt hn . o. :. |
,atement of fact. He wants to use the +
.iegraph for some pretty little thing of u
is own not intended for publication u
or example, a couple | had last night. j
ter gong through the manDuyrcs nave 81
ISL described. put his pen to paper and n
rote tins verse, which learned by heart II
1ca'se thought it so good: .s..,.. II
Across the threshold led, y
nd every tear cast Off as soon as shed. b
IS mousse she enters, there to be q light
inning within when all without Is night; Ii
guarding angel DER his life presiding =, -,
OuDiing, his pleasure and his cares diyid- =,
ingn =. .--N' u
This he signed 'Arthur-Mary.' Then "
read it over and over again, and -,
emed quite unable 10 make up his mind 81
neither 1t were the correct thing to send. -
nal!y he handed it TO the girl, who was 7.
indlng at the desk playing the piano tb
1t with her bare loft hand, so that | t.i,'
uld see her new wedding ring, | sup " ~
se. She took the sheet and read the ~
etry: She was evidently of practical i'
rn of mind. ~
zen be awfully expensive to send "
eetedly. II
Nonsense quoth he testify. I'VE III
n get married every day. i thought sn ~,
u were more appreciative, Mary. -;
IatS an awful pretty thing from III III
gers S Human Life It's lucky re- st' su
,mbcred it, svl
, ,Pa won't understand H. said Mary. .o
hing, He despiseS poetry. He'll call 10 10,
fools, and rs he dSAt't know anything We
out this really do think it would be see
tier to give him the news in straight 10 10
ward way TO
i suppose you want me to say, I've lai
Irried your daughter Mary tonight. we
rgiye us Arthur" Pshawi hate TO lh'
ld message like that on such sub re'
t. The young man was evidently Get Wol
e angry at this early stage of his mar 20
d life, The young woman was evil an
ltly getting determined at the same sea
ly stage OF her married life. She got ne
way, however. She established Ve'
cedent. She began as she meant to slh
on. The dispatch sent ran as fol- the
Is; I GU daughter Mary is now my nma'
e, Forgive US. We feel ineXpressi- We
haDnV Arthur AFtnr th,,, IA TO